Adjusting Aji
by Irrepressible C
Summary: Based on and continuing the story Legacy by Gamine. Aji's made her choice to follow her true love to Earth - but is Earth ready for her? Updated with a REVISED chapter 2 (cause the last one was pooey) and a brand new chapter 3! R&R please!
1. Default Chapter

None of these characters are mine. Tommy, Jason, Kim, and other original rangers belong to B.V.E. or whatever. Aji is exclusively Gamine's, and a pretty rockin'-cool chippie. Nobody's making anything off any of this. I just wanted to see how it would go if I tried to flesh out Gamine's Legacy characters. If you aren't amused or entertained, blame (or thank) her for letting me know I have a voice and then daring me to use it. Let's see how it goes..  
  
Adjusting Aji - the mall encounter  
  
"You've got to be kidding me."  
  
Aji stared, mouth open, at the swarms of humanity that bustled before her, into and out of shops, up and down escalators, into and out of restaurants and booth-sized cafes. Three floors of activity confronted her, astounded her, and overwhelmed her. She'd never seen this many people before - even in battle. She doubted there were even this many in all of Xerya. For now, anyway.  
  
Kim just sighed and smiled. "Ah, it's good to be home."  
  
"You don't really live here?" asked Aji belatedly.  
  
"Of course not, although if you ask Tommy or Jason they'd immediately say yes. I just happen to like shopping, is all. And the mall is the absolute best place to do it in. Everything in one place."  
  
Again Aji stared. Everything in one place, huh? It certainly seemed like it to her. "This will take some getting used to," she admitted.  
  
"That's okay," ventured Kim. "I you'll have plenty of opportunity to get used to it. Now that Trini is off with Deorth, you get to be my new shopping buddy! Not to mention one of my bridesmaids. Oh, she'll be here for the wedding, but not until a day or two before. This stuff takes weeks to prepare. So YOU get to be my new mall sidekick!"  
  
"Great," Aji said darkly. "What's a bridesmaid?" she asked, beginning to think she didn't want to know.  
  
"Well, for the wedding, you stand up front with Kat, Trini and Tanya and watch Tommy and I get married. You wear a fabulous dress, and carry flowers. It's fun."  
  
"Ah. Why?"  
  
"Because it's tradition." Kim screwed her pretty face up in thought. "That, and I think it originally was to confuse anyone coming to kidnap or steal the bride so they wouldn't know which one she was."  
  
"Oh. We're bait for attackers." Aji could understand that motive, having lived with combat all her life.  
  
"No, not really," Kim replied. "Not anymore. Now any ruffian-baiting necessary at a wedding is done by how tasty you look in the dresses we pick out. Not that Jase would let that happen, anyway. Let's get moving. I want to hit most of the stores by lunchtime."  
  
As they walked along the shops, Aji found herself relying on her combat- trained muscles to keep from being jostled and even overrun by shoppers carrying large and unwieldy parcels. She sighed, still not getting it, but willing to attempt to fit into life with Kim, because she was a part of her life with Jason, and in honor of her bond with Tommy. It was that bond that allowed her to understand Tommy's feelings for Kim, and his desire to spend his life with her. But this shopping thing. Aji didn't think she'd ever get it.  
  
Meanwhile, Kim kept up a steady stream of explanation and commentary on the clothes and designs she saw around her. "Omigosh! This would be PERFECT, except that it would look HORRID on Tanya, since she'll still be pregnant during the ceremony, and JEEZ, I can't believe they expect people to pay this much for last season's shoes, especially ones as ugly as that, and do you prefer off the shoulder, or spaghetti strap, and by the way, I think someone with your body shape would look FABULOUS in this.."  
  
Aji was amazed by Kim's never-ending verbal stream. She walked along trailing Kim as she wound her way among display racks, handing her outfits to hold, paying only half her attention to Kim's banter. She was still wondering what spaghetti was and why it was used to make clothing straps, when she was jostled back into awareness by something Kim had just said.  
  
Aji burst out without thinking, "what do you mean I have to wear yellow?"  
  
"Well," said Kim, "you're the yellow ranger now. That means you have to load up on yellow for your wardrobe."  
  
"But I look atrocious in yellow. My hair is red."  
  
"I know," said Kim sympathetically, "but we all do it. When I was the pink ranger, I always wore pink. Jason wore red, Tommy wore green, Trini wore yellow, Billy wore blue. That's how it was."  
  
"But why?" Aji asked.  
  
"Um," was all Kim could manage. "I really don't know. We just did." Kim looked at her with a somber face, then quickly turned her face away to hide her impish grin from Aji. "So you will."  
  
"No. absolutely not."  
  
"But you're the yellow ranger now!" Kim cried with mock hurt in her voice.  
  
Aji was adamant, and turned to face Kim. "Uh-uh, former pink whatever. Not on your life. I look horrible in yellow. I look sallow."  
  
Kim's front of stubborness almost fell. "Obviously, things won't be the same with this new generation of rangers. But I never thought, even among the primary Zeo ranks, that there'd ever be anything but 'the way it always is.'"  
  
Aji noticed Kim's discomfiture, and took the bait. She tried again. "Well, at least not ALL yellow. Couldn't I wear, like, a yellow sash or a bracelet? Under my clothes? Yellow underwear?"  
  
Kim sighed her 'exasperated' sigh that always worked so well with Tommy. "Look, let's just leave it for now and get on with shopping. I really want to have these bridesmaids dresses picked out by the end of the day." She began walking again, headed towards the bridal boutique.  
  
Aji, willing to table for a time what she didn't understand, made a mental note to query Jason later. In an attempt to get back into a better mood, then called out to Kim's retreating back, "So, what color are these decoy dresses going to be?"  
  
Kim turned and hollered back over her shoulder, grinning widely. "Yellow!" She stuck out her tongue at Aji. She turned and watched Aji's scowl, then hooted it broke in to a grin. Kim began to run as the other woman chased her down with mock ferocity, and the two ran off through the throngs of humanity that perpetually inhabit the mall. 


	2. chapter 2

All ranger stuff belongs to B.V.E., the rest is Gamine's idea, based on Legacy. No money is being made off this, and no actual rangers were harmed during filming. J Many thanks to my unnamed ghost writer (Gamine) who saves my ass on a regular basis. 

**Adjusting Aji **

**Chapter 2: actual animals!**  
  
  
"So Kim said I was to stand as a decoy for her on the day of her wedding with Tommy. Do you know what she means?"  
  
Jason looked rather stunned. "I don't even know what you mean. Stand as decoy?"  
  
Aji and Jason were lounging in bed, tangled up together as the afternoon sunlight warmed them, Aji's most recent shopping acquisition curled up between them – a tawny (and currently very sleepy) kitten. Aji turned awkwardly to face Jason, trying not to disturb the slumbering bit of fuzz they'd named "Medja." 

  
"She called it by another name, too. She said I'd be a maid or something."   
  
Jason grinned hungrily. "Sorry, love. You're well past the 'maid' stage. But I get it now. She asked you to be a bridesmaid."   
  
"Yes, that was it! She led me all around that 'mall' for such a long time, and I finally got tired of holding clothing and putting on one dress after another…. It was interminable. So I walked off at one point, leaving her talking to the air, and found myself looking through a window at this little creature.   
  


"Imagine! An entire room that held more animals than Xerya has seen in the last three hundred years. All kinds too, love! Ones that swam, and ones that looked as if they could fly like our scout gliders – they had wings that folded down. I saw one extending its wings a few times. It was like nothing I'd seen!   
  


"But I kept looking back at this one." She rubbed the furry head next to her. "She was so small and looked utterly helpless, compared to the other things in the window with her. But one began to attack her, and she fought like a grat'lest to chase the other one away. Kim found me watching her with my face up against the glass, and next thing I knew, Kim had pulled out a card, like a security code pass almost, and gave it to someone in the store. She pointed to my fierce and furry friend here, and the person brought her out of the window, and gave her to me. Kim told me she was now mine, and that she was my payment for what Kim called 'putting up with her trifling ways'.  
  


"I couldn't believe it! Kim gave me an animal! And she's all mine! Isn't she wonderful, Jase?"  
  
Jason smiled at Aji's excitement. He reached out to stroke her cheek, much as she had been stroking the kitten's, and she and her mini counterpart both stretched in sheer languid joy in being alive. He made up his mind in that moment, what he'd been thinking, ever since Tom had asked Kim.  
  
"Aj, you know how much I love you."  
  
"Of course – we're life bound. It's kind of hard not to tell!" She giggled into his strong arms as the kitten chose that moment to give her chin a thorough bath.   
  


"Good. So, do you want to be married before Kim and Tommy, or after?"  
  
Aji caught Jason's solemn demeanor.  "Um – Jason, I really don't know what it is but if you think we need it, I trust you." 

"Well, it's really just a formalization of being lifebound.  It announces in front of witnesses that we are married now and forever, and we exchange rings to symbolize our belonging to each other.  Understand?"

"Sure. Yes. Um – maybe.  Do you mean that here, we are not lifebound without this ceremony?"  Aji's voice began rising steadily.  

"No.  We'd be bound regardless. But humans don't sing the Bloodsong the way we do, and this is how they signify a bond, by taking these vows before witnesses.  Although it doesn't stop some people from violating the vows and playing around on their spouse."

Aji's expression went flat.  "Then it is no true bond, if it can be violated. A true lifebond cannot be broken in that way."

Jason shrugged.  "But they aren't built like us. And some people just can't take temptation."

 "So if you don't exhibit a ring, other women will think you are free and present that 'temptation'?  I trust you, Jason, but I would be required to kill an awful lot of women….  Yes, I'll marry you.  Do I have to have decoys too?"   
  


Jason laughed. "No! Not decoys – honored attendants. And a maid of honor to stand by you and with you."

  
"Ah. That makes more sense with how Kim was discussing it. I didn't think a very pregnant Tanya would be a good decoy, anyway. Unless she went into labor as a diversion. But that didn't make sense either."  
  
"So, do you have an idea for who you want as your maid of honor?"  
  
"Uh huh." Aji smiled. "How do I get in touch with Tommy?"  
  



	3. Chapter 3

All ranger stuff belongs to B.V.E., the rest is Gamine's idea, based on Legacy. No money is being made off this, and no actual rangers were harmed during filming (despite the following evidence to the contrary). Many thanks to my unnamed beta angel (Gamine) who saves my ass on a regular basis.  This one was fun to write.  Enjoy.

Adjusting Aji

Chapter 3 – the aftermath

"You're serious?  Uh huh…. I'd love to.  Yeah. Just let me know when.  Okay!" Tommy laughingly hung up the phone and turned to meet Kim's inquiring gaze.  "You'll never believe what just happened," he told her.  "Aji asked me to be her 'honormaid' for her wedding to Jason."

"What!?!"  Tommy was suddenly pelted by a small, brown haired missile as Kim tackled him.  

Her questions all came out in a rush while she reached across him for the phone.  "Omigosh! Did she say when? How did he ask her? Does she have a dress? Does she need any help? What did Jason say? Did he say anything?"  He laughed and playfully held it out of her reach.

"I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I'm not sure, and no," he replied.

"Then give me the phone, goob!" 

Kim kicked Tommy in the shins, and he went down as she tumbled across him and snatched the phone from his grip.  "I have them on speed-dial. I'll just be a minute!" she smiled sweetly to her fiancé who was writhing on the floor in false agony.

"Abuse! Agony!  I shouldn't marry you, you wench.  You'll kill me if I accidentally step between you and your phone or your credit cards.  Oh, the pain!"

"Sissy.  Baby."

"All of that.  You know, I'm not insured.  It all goes to charity automatically when I die."

Kim stuck out her tongue at Tommy and grinned.  The ringing over the line suddenly gave way to a loud but confusing conversation.

"No, I think I have it – hello?  Hello?  This is Aji and this… no Jason, it doesn't work.  There's no visual."

"Give it here, hon.  No, you've got it upside… no wonder you can't hear any… Aji, don't push that…*click*." 

Tommy and Kim grinned at each other.  "Sounds like Aji's still adjusting to life here."

"Well, it takes time.  And shopping."

"Hmm.  Your methods may be dubious, but I know better than to cross you.  You'd break my arm."

"That's right!  And you'll need both of them to hold Aji's bouquet." She giggled at her Tommy, picturing him in the bridesmaids dresses she'd picked out the day before.  "Now keep quiet while I dial them again."

This time the phone was answered without too much ado, and Kim and Aji excitedly exchanged news.  Tommy smiled, bemused, half listening to Kim chattering away happily into the phone, remembering Aji's tone when she asked him to be her honormaid.  He knew what she meant, and knew how much it meant to him to be a part of her life.  Light and Shadow, they had been, wholly distinct at times – merging softly one into the other at others, but not to be separated.  You knew one by knowing the other.  The absence of one left the other impossible to gauge.  Now, as he was joining himself to Kim in marriage to celebrate their bond, he was deeply glad that Jason and Aji chose to celebrate it too.

"He did WHAT?!?!?!?!?" Kim's shriek pulled Tommy instantly out of his reverie.  "That no-good, lousy, stinking… why I ought to… put that creep on the phone, Aj!  NOW!"

Tommy leaned back into his chair and tried to become inconspicuous.  Kim in a tirade was not to be interrupted.  He felt sorry for Jason, though, whatever it was he'd done. 

"Now YOU hear THIS, you unromantic slob!  You did NOT travel across the galaxy to bring back your God-given, life-bound, TRUE LOVE to merely _inform_ her that she and you are getting married.  You GET your BUTT back there and you KNEEL YOUR ASS DOWN ON THE FLOOR and you TAKE HER HAND and put on your SWEETEST MOVES TO CHARM THE PANTS OFF OF HER AND SWEEP HER OF HER FEET **OR I WILL PERSONALLY COME OVER THERE AND KICK YOUR SORRY ASS FROM HERE TO XERYA AND BACK MYSELF!!!!**"

Good going, Jase, Tommy thought to himself.  Smooth and cool, brother, that's you.  

He hoped that Kim left enough of him for Aji to have something to marry.

"Now, Jason dear, put Aji back on the line, please," Kim's tone had reverted to her usual sweet self as if a switch had been flipped.  Jason glumly handed the phone back to a concerned-looking Aji.

"But Jason, I could hear yelling.  What's the matter?"  

Jason slumped down onto the bed and pointed to the receiver.  "Ask decibel-girl."  

"What?"  Aji put the phone to her ear.  "Kim, what's wrong?  What has happened?  Why is Jason so upset? You were happy a moment ago.  Why did you yell at Jason?"

Tommy, from his end of the conversation, watched Kim bristle once more.  In a voice that was controlled, barely, Kim expounded point by point for several minutes how Jason's thumb-fingered handling of the proposal violated everything a woman from earth would expect – no, demand – as her right and due for a properly executed wedding.  And until Jason did it right….

"…you can't marry him."

Tommy sat bolt upright, not believing his ears.  His Kim, his darling, beloved, angel-sweet Kim, was telling Aji not to marry Jason until he backed up his clumsy proposal with actions more to her liking.  Tommy winced.  She'd hold him to it, too.  It seemed she already was.

Aji solemnly hung up the phone.  She stared out the window a brief beat, and sighed as if suddenly very tired.  She turned slowly, reluctantly, to Jason.  "I can't marry you.  Kim says 'not until you change your wicked ways and do it like you ought to have done in the first place and treat me like the princess I deserve to be on my wedding day.'"  She sighed again.  "I am not sure what all that means, Jason, but if it is this important, I will abide by earth's customs.  I want to do things right here.  For you.  For our friends.  We've got a lifetime to live, and I won't start it badly."

"She what?"

"That is what she said."

"I… she… she just…."  Jason seemed to develop a twitch in his right eye, just at the corner.  It was if he'd blown a fuse.  "After what she just said…. Now she thinks she can…. AAARRRGGGHHH!!!"

"Now, Jason…" began Aji.

Jason leveled his dark gaze on his moment-ago fiancée. "Just give me my keys.  I'm going to have a little _talk_ with Kimberly."


	4. Chapter 4

PR is totally somebody else's, but no money is being made or lost.  As the illustrious Rach says, "no harm, no foul."  Sorry for the gaping lapse since the last chapter.  Throwing myself upon the mercy of the court, I plead youth and inexperience, combined with long and faithful service.  Many thanks to my international muse, Dagmar, who gently cracked the whip just by letting me know she cares.  And of course, as always, to Gamine.

"The stinking thing is, she's right," Jason thought to himself as he stalked out to his bronco. He stopped himself for a deep breath as he grabbed the door handle. "I should have given Aj the best that could be had.  She deserves it. Especially in light of all we've just been through.  Life is too short not to do it right the first time." He sighed to himself.  "But that doesn't mean I'll let Kim get away with this kind of crap."

Jason almost threw himself into the seat, and slammed the battered door shut with a satisfying "chunk."  It surprised him by sounding twice. 

He looked over, and saw Aji in the passenger's seat, looking right back at him. 

"Where do you think you're going?" he demanded.

"With you," Aji replied. "I'm not letting you run off like a half-crazed grat'lest to chase after Kim. She doesn't deserve it, no matter what she said to you." Her calm but determined face gazed across the cab at him. 

"Besides," she went on with a wry grin, "I've seen what Kim can do to a grat'lest when she's motivated."

"Shut up," Jason said, although he could feel his anger already beginning to diffuse. Still, he wanted to teach the little meddler a lesson. His plan began to form.  

***

By the time they arrived at Tommy's apartment, Jason had carefully coached Aji in what she was to say.  They screeched to a halt in the gray stone of the driveway.  Jason leapt out of the car, slamming his door loudly.  

"Kim!" he bellowed.  Upstairs, they could see a light curtain flutter aside as a small face framed by dark hair peered out.  Tommy appeared at the top of the flight of steps leading to the wooden upper deck.  

"Jase, look, I know you're mad and all, but…"

"Out of the way, Tom. I know what I'm doing.  If she can say it to me, she can say it to my face.  And I just might have a little wedding advice of my own for her."  He reached the top of the steps, and began to push past Tommy.  "Kim – I know you're here.  Get out here, you pushy ex-pink midget."

Tommy looked down at Aji, who gave him their old battle hand-signal for "wait."  Confused, Tommy nodded, and turned back to watch the scene.

Kim came and stood in the doorway.  Her bottom lip was slightly trembling but her chin and eyes were defiant.  "Midget, huh?  Come and see what I've got for you, you overblown…" 

"I don't think that you have any right to threaten, or lecture, me about my love life, Miss Run-on-down-to-Florida-and-drive-my-life-bound-partner-to-leave-the-planet-in-despair."  

"You ASSHOLE!"  Suddenly, there was a hole in the air where Kim had been a moment ago.  She was currently flying towards Jason with her right foot out to strike him.  Jason coolly sidestepped, and caught her. Even though he no longer held Paladin, he still greatly outmatched Kim in strength and size.   He held her while she flailed.  "You JERK!  You let me go! Tommy!  Do SOMETHING, dammit!"

"You know, I'm really not that mad at you. I just want the chance to give you some of what you so lovingly and freely dish out – and you're going to take it, because I won't let go of you until I do."  Jason smiled down at Aji and winked at Tommy.  Kim grew quiet in his arms.

"Okay Jason.  I'll stop.  But just so you know, you and Aji'd better have kids damn fast, because you're LOSING those boys as soon as I get a clear shot at you."  

Tommy chocked back his laughter.  He'd have to remember that one.  

Jason set the feisty brunette down and pointed to a deck chair.  "Sit."  Glumly, Kim sat.  She glowered at Aji as she came up to the deck and sat down with Jason across from Kim.  "Fat lot of help you were, sister.  I might just not make you a bridesmaid after all."

"Now Kim," Jason began soothingly.  "I do love you despite your shortcomings, and I forgive you for your insanity and lack of good judgment.  I do, however, want you to deal with things logically now.  You had no right to say what you said, or to invade or interfere with Aji and me unless you are willing to have it the same way.  If you do unto others, the others by right have a chance to do unto you right back."  Jason straightened, and cleared his throat.

"Now.  Concerning your recent outburst, when you made me feel like an absolute yoink for not giving Aji the best of everything our world has to offer…." Kim cringed slightly, waiting for the outburst.  

"You were absolutely right."

Kim sat up.  "You think I was RIGHT?  Then what is this all about?" she demanded in a loud tone.  

"Because I have something to say about you and Tommy, and I know that I'm right too.  I meant what I said about you running off on Tom.  I know you love him and he loves you – but what's with all this wedding crap?  It's going to take almost a year to plan things exactly the way you want for this wedding, and you're already driving everyone NUTS.  

He gestured inside.  "And what's with all of those big, fat catalogs we see every time we come over here?  You've totally taken over Tommy's house!"

"But I've dreamed about this since I was a little girl!" Kim retorted.  "It's what I've always wanted!"

Jason looked at her, and pointed to Tommy.  "No, Kim – he's what you've always wanted."

Kim looked over at Tommy, eyes welling up in memory of what she'd almost lost.  She heard Jason again, softly but firmly.

"Now, quit wasting time and marry the boy."  

Fifteen hours later, the four were in Vegas.


	5. Chapter 5 Aji in Vegas!

Disclaimer: All characters belong to PR people, and all new characters belong to Gamine, my everlasting muse.  You're the SUPERBEST! Except you go tme hooked on a hobby I can't make $ at.  Love ya! Aji gets a makeover 

"So how did you know?"  Tommy's voice cut the calm reverie of Jason's deep-tissue massage.  He mumbled against the terry-covered table as the masseur worked his muscular shoulders.  

"What?" Tommy turned his head and looked over at his friend laying on an identical massage table next to him.  "Spit out your towel, and tell me how you knew I was unhappy with Kim's wedding craze."

Jason huffed through the cloth, then turned his head towards Jason. 

"I said, there was no missing it, because it was more what you didn't say.  You didn't say a word.  Usually, when you're that excited about something, you brim over at the mouth.  Geez.  

Back on Xerya, it was 'Kim this…' and 'Light and Shadow that…' and 'Boy, we tanked Sov'ran and I almost killed Billy…' over there.  We couldn't _get_ you to shut up.  But for the last three months of Kim's running us all ragged, you said only two things. Diddly, and squat.   Suddenly, I stick up for you, you're happy again, and now I can't shut you up.  Damn, Oliver.  Let a guy relax, huh?" 

Tommy got quiet.  "Really, Jase?  You know me well enough to… of course you know me that well.  I just thought I was hiding it better than that.  I mean, it was what Kim wanted, and so I didn't say anything to anyone.  I hardly even saw anyone, so…. Um…. You really could tell?"

Jason looked at Tommy with a kind, almost indulging smile.  Then he said, "Of course not. You think I'm a sensitive wuss?  Aji told me. Apparently, you were so upset you were practically broadcasting on FM."

Jason made much of turning his face back down into the terrycloth, but not before Tommy saw the grin that threatened to crack his features.  Muffled chuckles burst from Jason's table.  "At least I saved you from a gray pinstripe tuxedo with tails and spats."  The masseurs looked up from their pummeling of Jason & Tommy's backs, and shared a wry grin.  A poorly repressed laugh emanated from above Tommy's head as his own serviceman lost it.  Tommy blushed maroon.

"Yeah, well, at least Kim left you alive.  For a minute there, I didn't think she was going to.  She can be rather, well, um…." Tommy paused, unsure as to how he should speak of his wife to be.

Another muffled reply came from the terrycloth again. "Bridezilla?"

The masseurs lost it, cracking up loudly along with Jason, who turned on the table and sat up to face his rather livid friend.  

"Yeah, well. At least she's mine," Tommy said quietly.  "She'll settle down once we're hitched."

The three other men's laughter burst out even harder at this.

Ten pink toes emerged from a lather of foam and wiggled at Aji.  Looking past them at the doe brown eyes behind them at the other end of the tub.  Those eyes were anything but settled – they were twinkling with mischief.  

"Come on, Aj.  You _gotta_ try this," Kim crooned out over the mound of bubbles that covered her diminutive form.  "You have to acquire your expensive tastes before you get married. You won't get the chance to if you wait until after."  

"I'm going to have Tommy so trained that he sends me off to the spa at least once a week, and I'll have him so wrapped around my finger that he won't even notice when the bill arrives."  Kim smiled again and wiggled her toes at the thought, crooking her pinky for emphasis.  

Aji smirked at the thought, but did not capitulate.  "Kim, I've rarely had other than field showers and plunges into freezing lakes in the mountains where we hid the base.  I don't know about all this stuff you want to use on me…."  She held up a packet of expensive spa product, glancing at the label dubiously.  _Exfoliate and polish_, it said.  Aji imagined something akin to the molting of a grat'lest paired with the polish one would use on an assault rifle.

"Which is exactly why you _must_.  Jason's never seen you like this.  I mean, you're gorgeous and all, you know… but he's never seen you, well, _done up_ right."  

"I feel stupid."

"You'll _glow_."

"I doubt it."

"_Trust_ me."

Glowering look.

"I _promise. _ I bet I can even make you look good in yellow."

"Why you little…!" 

Splat.

Giggles from Kim, a face full of foam bubbles for Aji.

"YE-AIIIIII-AHHHH!!!!" (Unbridled cry most commonly associated with the outset of the ethrull's final melee.)

SPLASH!

( A short time later…..)

Twenty pink toes emerged from two tubs filled with foam and wiggled in a row, spaced ten and ten.  Aji sighed luxuriously and stretched from within the spa tub next to Kim's.  A strident voice interrupted her in the midst pf her appreciative wallowing in suds. 

"So tell me why you didn't tell me."

Aji sat up a bit and looked over the edge of her tub.  Kim's brown eyes could just be seen above the enamel of her own – but they were aimed at her with an intense gaze.  Kim continued on.

"No, first, tell me how you knew Tommy was unhappy – then we can get to the _why you didn't tell me_ part."

Aji sighed again, this time with a bit of exasperation.  "Kim, I know it hurt you the way you found out. And I am truly sorry for that.  In answer to your second question, Tommy wanted more than anything for you to be happy, and was willing to do anything to maintain that happiness.  I did not feel it was right to act against that.  You were happy so happy planning and shopping…."

"But you hated every minute of it, too, didn't you?"

"I did.  But I also want your happiness.  It means more to me than you know. Please believe me."

Kim sloshed upward a few inches to rest her chin on the cool enamel.  "I believe you.  I can hear it in your voice.  But how in hell did you know Tommy was that unhappy? _I_ didn't even know."

"Promise not to get upset?"

"Uh huh."

"Honestly, Kim."

"Oh, all right already!  I won't get mad."

Aji drew in a deep breath, in readiness for her next confession.  "Tommy and I still have a residual mental bond.  I don't know why.  The Watcher said that all of our powers were supposed to disappear once Sov'ran was defeated.  They only existed in response to the threat Sov'ran posed – so the only thing I can think of is that there may be some threat remaining." 

She looked over at Kim's stunned face.  "But I didn't want to say anything about it to you – or to Jason.  Neither did Tommy.  We just wanted to be, well, happy and at peace for a while.  We don't know what is out there, or why we can still link in this way.  But we just wanted to be – well, _normal_ for once.  All I've known in my whole life is war.  Tommy has faced losing you more times than he cares to.  We just wanted to be, well, happy." Aji gave a wry smile.  "Going along with your plans for the wedding seemed to be a good distraction, and might hold off our involvement for years, it seemed.  But we wanted a relative peace in life, and if that meant you were going to make us miserable, then so be it."

"Wow.  I don't know what to say, Aji.  Except, well, maybe thank you in a freakish sort of way.  There's no way of knowing why you and he are still linked without being Light and Shadow?"

"I'm afraid not, Kim."  

"And you were afraid to find out?"

"Yes.  I'm sorry."

Kim huffed out a breath.  "Well I'm not.  I've had enough of interstellar war to last me two lifetimes.  I just want  to settle down and be with Tommy, maybe someday have kids.  But, listen Aj - you know what you mean to me, right?"

Aji smiled a true smile this time.  "I think so, Kimberly."

"And you know what I will do to you if you ever pull any crap like this again on me, right?"

Aji grinned. "Uh huh."

"Has Jason figured it out yet?"

"Sort of.  I told him about the feelings I overheard from Tommy, hoping he would help Tom deal with things.  But I didn't say anything about my suspicions of a threat.  I didn't want to upset him – and I figured he wouldn't probe too deeply yet – at least until he thought about it for a few months.  He's not always that observant unless he's really focused on something.  I found it wasn't too hard to, well, distract him." 

Kim eased back into her suds and paused a moment to look up at the ceiling, then back across to Aji.  She took a deep breath before speaking.  "Okay then.  We will deal with whatever is going on out in the greater universe in due time.  But until then, we are damn well getting married – and I am willing to bet that I can make you look so good that Jason will swallow his tongue over you."

"You're on!"

Jason and Tommy eased their way down the steps of the casino lobby, feeling refreshed and relaxed from their afternoon of pampering.  In slick new suits (from the "reception hall rental fund") they smoothly strolled into the room, knowing they looked good. Their creases were sharp, their lines were smooth.  They noticed the attention they were getting.  They more particularly noticed the female attention they were getting.

Then they noticed a knot of men standing near the lobby entrance, and bits of red and chestnut glimmering occasionally between the shifting shoulders of those men.  

With a wary glance at each other, Jason and Tommy made their way towards the circle to unearth their brides, intending to thrash the hell out of anyone who got in the way.  As they reached the outer circle, it parted.  Tommy grinned.  Jason gasped.

"Well it's about time!  We were going to leave you both and marry these guys.  Or at least they were going to try very hard to persuade us."  Kim grinned up at her Tommy, her long hair swaying seductively around her shoulders.  She was dressed in a short, tight dress of silver lame that crossed up and over one shoulder, leaving the other bare of all but Chanel no.5.  Her tiny feet, deadly when flying through the air at a foe, were clad in delicate silver heels, strappy and laced up her legs to the knees.  She was a knockout.  

But, Tommy thought, that was to be expected.  He glanced over at Jason, who still had yet to move.  Or recover.

He looked over at Aji, and admittedly, he could see why.  Even without their diminished but residual ability to sense the other's emotions, Tommy would have been able to tell how pleased Aji was with the results of the "experiment" Kim had proposed.  Although he had known it was coming (Jason hadn't), Tommy was still dazzled by what he saw.  He looked at Kim and winked.  She wiggled with the pleasure of her success.  She called out to Jason:

"You see, Jason?  Not all girly-type preparations are bad."

Jason spoke his first words in several minutes.  "Uh, um… damn."  

Aji looked that good.

Her short, red hair, normally clean and finger-brushed in a rakish antithesis of style, suddenly was anything but.  It was polished bronze, and swept coyly across her forehead to tuck behind one ear.  The back and sides stood out in a wispy parody of their normal spiky state, and looked so soft that Jason's fingers trembled with the desire to plunge his hands into it.  Her eyes glinted at the corners with gold, her lips were a deep, lustrous red-gold bow.  Her trim, muscular body was clad in a shimmering dress and sandals that matched Kim's in style and shape, but was a deep burnished gold that set off the highlights in her hair.   The only other difference was that Aji was taller than Kim.  Much taller.  

Jason almost choked over her legs.

A bronze-gold and silver armband encircled each woman's upper right arm, and their left hands each held a ring of a matching metal, fabulously topped with a giant diamond ("reception, food and liquor budget").  

Their skin glowed with health and vigor.  Their eyes were alight, and their smiles each vied to trump the other in joy and delight.  They knew that the boys looked good too.  But Aji and Kim knew that they had won.  

They looked that good.

Jason still hadn't moved. 

Aji and Kim looked at each other with glee.  

Kim looked at Jason, then at her watch pulled discreetly from her purse, and finally up at Aji.

Aji opened her evening bag with a grin and blatantly passed Kim a hundred dollar bill.


End file.
